For most city people, the elevator is an unremarkable machine that inspires none of the enthusiasm or interest that Americans afford trains, jets，and even bicycles. Dr. Christopher Wilk is a member of a small group of elevator experts who consider this a misunderstanding. Without the elevator, they point out, there could be no downtown skyscrapers or tall buildings, and city life as we know it would be impossible. In that sense, they argue，the elevator’s role in American history has been no less significant than that of cars. In fact, according to Wilk? the car and the elevator have been locked in a “secret war” for over a century, with cars making it possible for people to spread horizontally (水平地)，and elevators pushing them toward life in close groups of towering vertical (垂直的)columns.
If we tend to ignore the significance of elevators, it might be because riding in them tends to be such a brief, boring, and even awkward experience^one that can involve unexpectedly meeting people with whom we have nothing in common, and an unpleasant awareness of the fact that we’re hanging from a cable in a long passage.
In a new book, Lifted, German journalist and cultural studies professor Andreas Bernard directed all his attention to this experience, studying the origins of elevator and its relationship to humankind and finding that riding in an elevator has never been a totally comfortable experience. “After 150 years, we are still not used to it”， Bernard said. “We still have not exactly learned to cope with the mixture of closeness and displeasure.” That mixture, according to Bernard, sets the elevator ride apart from just about every other situation we find ourselves in as we go about our lives.
Today，as the world’s urban population explodes，and cities become more crowded, taller, and more crowded, America’s total number of elevators—900,000 at last count, according to Elevator World magazine’s “2012 Vertical Transportation Industry”一are a force that’s becoming more important than ever. And for the people who really, really love them, it seems like high time that we looked seriously at just what kind of force they are.What does the underlined word “this” in Paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．The general view of elevators. |
| B．The particular interests of experts. |
| C．The desire for a remarkable machine. |
| D．The enthusiasm for transport vehicles. |
The author’s purpose in mentioning cars is .
| A．to contrast their functions with elevators, |
| B．to emphasize the importance of elevators |
| C．to reveal their secret war against elevators |
| D．to explain people’s preference for elevators |
According to Prof. Bernard, what has made the elevator ride different from other life experiences?
| A．Vertical direction. |
| B．Lack of excitement. |
| C．Little physical space. |
| D．Uncomfortable conditions. |
The author urges readers to consider .
| A．the exact number of elevator lovers |
| B．the serious future situation of elevators |
| C．the role of elevators in city development |
| D．the relationship between cars and elevators |
The evidence for harmony(和谐) may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image （形象）of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it had ever been in the past.“We were surprised by just how positive(肯定的) today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one number of the research team.“They’re expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds：they want a car and material goods，and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation(商议) and discussion between parents and children，and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat(捣乱).”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I‘m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing， they’re fine with me.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years， there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments(评论),“Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over. ”What is the popular images of the teenager today？
| A．They worry about school. |
| B．They dislike living with their parents. |
| C．They have to be locked in to avoid troubles. |
| D．They quarrel a lot with other family members. |
The study shows that teenagers don’t want to __________.
| A．share family responsibility |
| B．cause trouble in their families |
| C．go boating with their family |
| D．make family decisions |
Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents ____________.
| A．go to clubs more often with their children |
| B．are much stricter with their children |
| C．care less about their children’s life |
| D．give their children more freedom |
According to the writer, teenage rebellion __________.
| A．may be a false belief |
| B．is common nowadays |
| C．existed only in the 1960s |
| D．resulted from changes in families |
What is the passage mainly about？
| A．Negotiation in family. |
| B．Education in family. |
| C．Harmony in family. |
| D．Teenage trouble in family. |
When I met him，I had a lot of anger inside me. I’ve lived my whole life in Spanish Harlem， but in my neighborhood，there are shoot-ups all the time. I know kids who have been shot or beaten up. I have friends who ended up in prison. I could have ended up that way，too，but Mr. Clark wouldn’t let that happen.
Mr. Clark worked long hours，making sure I did my work. My grades rose. In fact，the scores of our whole class rose. One day，he took our class to see The Phantom of the Opera，and it was the first time some kids had ever been out of Harlem. Before the show，he treated us to dinner at a restaurant and taught us not to talk with our mouths full. We did not want to let him down.
Mr. Clark was selected as Disney’s 2000 Teacher of the Year. He said he would draw three names out of a hat；those students would go with him to Los Angles to get the award. But when the time came to draw names，Mr. Clark said,“You’re all going.”
On graduation day，there were a lot of tears. We didn’t want his class to end. In 2001，he moved to Atlanta, but he always kept in touch. He started giving lectures about education，and wrote a bestsell -ing book based on his classroom rules，The Essential 55. In 2003，Mr. Clark took some of us on a trip to South Africa to deliver school supplies and visit orphanages(孤儿院). It was the most amazing experience of my life. It’s now my dream to one day start a group of women’s clubs, helping people from all backgrounds.Without Mr. Clark，the writer _________.
| A．might have put into prison |
| B．might not have won the prize |
| C．might have joined a women’s club |
| D．might not have moved to Atlanta |
The Essential 55 is ___________.
| A．a show |
| B．a speech |
| C．a classroom rule |
| D．a book |
How many students’ names were finally drawn out of a hat by Mr. Clark？
| A．None |
| B．Three |
| C．Fifty-five |
| D．All |
In the passage, the writer intends to tell us that ___________.
| A．Mr. Clark went to South Africa because he liked traveling |
| B．Mr. Clark helped to set up a group of women’s clubs |
| C．a good teacher can raise his or her students’ score |
| D．a good teacher has a good influence on his or her students |
What is the writer’s attitude towards Mr. Clark？
| A．He speaks highly of Mr. Clark. |
| B．He looks down upon Mr. Clark. |
| C．He doesn’t show his attitude towards Mr. Clark. |
| D．He takes a neutral(中立的) attitude towards Mr. Clark. |
It seems some people have something bad to say about Facebook, the social media website that now has attracted more than 300 million members. To them I have only this to say: Stop please!
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal blamed Facebook’s ability to ruin friendships, saying that it limits communication to typing and encourages people to spend far too much time with friends they have never met.
Having used Facebook since its first year, I find these arguments false. The simple truth is that the problems are only a symptom of Facebook abuse. Like many things, it is only as harmful to your life and relationships as you allow it to be. Consider arguments against watching too much TV and overeating.
Try using Facebook to find friends who may have long ago changed their e-mail addresses and phone numbers, to find out what your old college friends are up to, to congratulate your friends on their latest birthdays, to share pictures and articles you find interesting, and to join in the discussion about them with your friends.
Sure, I had days when I wasted a little more time on Facebook than I should, but I’m not going to blame Facebook for my own laziness. If Facebook wasn’t there, I would have found something else to waste time on. To my “friends”: if you don’t feel like broadcasting your life stories on your Facebook, don’t. If you tire of my personal updates, ignore them. If you don’t want to join in the popular online games, don’t. It is a fun tool at your fingers that can be used for both good and bad. If you don’t like using Facebook, don’t.
I am now a consultant at the Department of State. I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues who live and work all over the world.Why did the article in the Wall Street Journal blame Facebook?
| A．Because it makes people spend too much time online. |
| B．Because it can make people lose their real-life friends. |
| C．Because it is as harmful to people’s lives as watching TV. |
| D．Because it encourages people to make friends with strangers. |
What does the author suggest using Facebook to do?
| A．To find out lost e-mail addresses and phone numbers. |
| B．To arrange appointments with our old college friends. |
| C．To collect interesting pictures and articles from our friends. |
| D．To keep in touch with friends who we haven’t called for long. |
We can imply from the passage that by using Facebook we can ____.
| A．read other’s personal updates |
| B．write our life stories online secretly |
| C．decide who can read our life stories |
| D．refuse to join in popular online games |
The author writes the last paragraph to ____.
| A．prove that Facebook can be well used |
| B．gain support from the Department of State |
| C．show that Facebook is used all around the world |
| D．introduce how she uses Facebook in her work as a consultant |
The skin which covers the tips of the fingers and thumbs is crossed by numerous ridges (隆起) arranged in different patterns. These patterns are permanent from birth and remain exactly the same throughout a person's life, even when the skin becomes wrinkled and cracked as a result of old age. Such patterns are never passed on from parents to children, and no one in the world has the same patterns as anyone else. Even identical twins have different sets of fingerprints. As a result, fingerprints offer a most useful and foolproof way of identifying people. Any ridged part of the hand and the foot may be used as a means of identification, but finger impressions are usually preferred since they can be taken easily and quickly.
Fingerprints are classified in the ways: by general shapes and contours(轮廓), by the finger positions of the pattern-types, and by size (often measured by counting the ridges in the loops). Every set of fingerprints has different “ridge characteristics” (i. e. the print of each separate finger is different from that of all the other fingers), which belong to one of four basic groups: arches, loops, whorls and composites. All fingerprints can then be divided into 1, 024 groups. By using details in the patterns above, these 1, 024 groups can be further divided into thousands of smaller groups, thus making it possible to find a particular set of fingerprints in a few minutes.According to this passage, the true statement about human fingerprints is that ____.
| A．people's fingerprints sometimes can be passed on from parents to children |
| B．people’s fingerprints are unique but identical twins may have the same fingerprints |
| C．using fingerprints is the only way to identify people |
| D．people's fingerprints will not change in all their lives |
We prefer to use fingerprints to identify people because ____.
| A．we can never find the same set of fingerprints among human beings |
| B．finger impressions can be taken easily and quickly |
| C．fingerprints offer a most useful and foolproof way of identifying people |
| D．all of the above |
The word “foolproof” (Line 7, Para. 1) most probably means ____.
| A．that is permanent | B．that is acceptable |
| C．that can not go wrong | D．that is not foolish |
About the classification of fingerprints, which is TRUE? ____.
| A．Fingerprints can be classified in three ways |
| B．All fingerprints can be divided into 1, 024 groups and can not be divided further |
| C．It is not easy to find a particular set of fingerprints in a short time |
| D．People can not classify the fingerprints in an effective way |
Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag
Difficulty: Very Easy
Average User Rating:★★★★☆(4.3/5)
Milk can become homemade ice cream in five minutes by using a bag! This homemade, creamy treat is a summertime delight for your kids and you alike.
What you’ll need:
1 tablespoon of sugar; 1/2 cup of milk; 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla (香草香精); 6 tablespoons of rock salt; 1 small-sized plastic food storage bag; 1 gallon-sized plastic food storage bag; ice cubes.
How to make it:
l Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
l Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
l Place the small bag inside the large one, and seal it again carefully.
l Shake until the mixture turns into ice cream, which takes about five minutes.
l Wipe the top of the small bag, and then open it carefully. Enjoy!
Tips:
1/2 cup of milk will make about one spoon of ice cream, so double the recipe if you want more. But don’t increase the amount more than that—a large amount might be too big for kids to pick up because the ice itself is heavy.
Here is another version of the homemade ice cream recipe from another parent!
These are the homemade ice cream ingredients:
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla butter and nuts; 1 tablespoon of sugar; 1/2 cup of milk.
These are the other supplies:
Plastic sandwich bag; 12 salt pellets; 1 dish of ice; large plastic bag.
Put the ice cream ingredients in the small bag, and then put the bag, salt and ice in the big bag. Hold the bag shut and move it around on the floor for about 5 minutes.
When I made ice cream at home last time, although the salt pellets didn’t really dissolve (溶解) that well, I still got ice cream. It was not smooth ice cream, probably because of the low-fat milk. It was incredible that it could be ready in 5 minutes (not counting preparing the ingredients)
Next, I changed the recipe, using a tablespoon of cocoa, a tablespoon of sugar, and a cup of milk. It was a bit too chocolaty, but good!The underlined “that” in “Tips” section refers to ____.
| A．1/2 cup of milk | B．1 cup of milk |
| C．1 spoon of ice cream | D．2 spoons of ice cream |
Which of the following things is NOT included in both recipes?
| A．Sugar | B．Ice | C．Plastic bag | D．Nuts |
Which of the following statements about the second parent is TRUE?
| A．He/ She doesn’t agree with the first parent. |
| B．He/ She doesn’t think five minutes is enough |
| C．He/ She doesn’t like cocoa better than nuts. |
| D．He/ She doesn’t think the chocolaty tastes bad. |
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